Tag Archive
Led Zeppelin

Royal Thunder are hands-down one of the best hard rock bands around today. They take the grooves of Zeppelin, the riffs of Sabbath and the powerful vocal presence of guys like Kurt Cobain and write songs that resonate deep within your soul. The band recently performed an intimate acoustic show in New York celebrating the release of their new album Crooked Doors, and a video from said performance can be seen after the jump.

Some of the best music you can feed your ears is that which takes you on a journey. To translate the majesty of sprawling mountains, the serenity of a flowing river or the vastness of a magnificent chasm into a musical composition is something that many musicians strive for, but few are able to achieve. Creating a sonic journey that not only does these natural wonders justice but also stands the test of time is a daunting task, not to mention an ambitious artistic undertaking, but this clearly doesn’t intimidate Elder. On the contrary, creating sweeping soundscapes and taking the listener on an epic journey is simply what they do, and they do it damn-near perfectly.

Oregon’s Yob has been crushing it on the road ever since the release of their monolithic mountain of doom metal, Clearing the Path to Ascend, last September. Now currently in-between touring Europe and beginning a full run of the US, guitarist/vocalist Mike Scheidt is at home on the west coast and doing a few sporadic solo shows. I got a chance to speak with Mike on the phone on February 18th about what he’s expecting out of their upcoming tour, never anticipating acclaim, how important it is to protect their art, and more.

It’s no secret that metal is the child of many differing influences and styles, from jazz through rock to classical music. But few recognize or are aware of the heavy debt that metal owes folk music of all types, specifically the folk revival of the 50’s and 60’s in America and England. This revival influenced the music of groups such as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Blue Oyster Cult, reincarnating through these names in our genre as a whole. And no name was more important for this revival than Shirley Collins. Before we continue our little tale, check out Ulver‘s cover of ‘Poor Murdered Woman’ right after the jump. Bring tissues.

You want Pentageese, the debut album from the wild and wonderful band Knyght Moose. You just don’t know it yet.

Having been graciously handed the opportunity to shill for my own band’s album via Heavy Blog, I racked my brain long and hard about how best take advantage of the situation. Should I concoct an elaborate, cartoonish story about how Knyght Moose came from outer space to change the world of music forever? Should I plead my case — ham fisted, ten miles up my own ass, and painfully earnest — for the relevance of this music and its validity as an artistic endeavor? Should I post risqué pictures of all the very handsome band members to win over the Heavy Blog readership with raw sex appeal?

No. None of that would do. I couldn’t stomach resorting to any of those tactics at the expense of my artistic integrity. Instead, I’m just going to point out all the reasons why you would have to be a dumb idiot not to download Pentageese.

Wild Throne

Blood Maker

01. The Wrecking Ball Unchained
02. Shadow Deserts
03. Blood Maker

[03/04/2014]
[Brutal Panda Records]

Encountering a wild animal, your breath catches in your throat. A million possibilities flash inside your head, racing to find the right reaction and save yourself. As the animal growls, you realize that now is not the time for decisions, but for guttural reaction. Your chest constricts painfully in anticipation. That constriction of your chest is Blood Maker by Wild Throne. It’s feral, primal and drips a strange, sexual magnetism. Relying on fuzzy guitars, bottomless bass, and frantic drums, Blood Maker reaches into your heart and gives it a rough, glorifying squeeze.

For those looking to scratch that stoner/sludge itch, you’re in luck: H A R K debuted the first track from their highly-anticipated forthcoming album Crystalline, entitled ‘Palendromeda’, and man, does it rule. Go give it a spin over at Terrorizer right stinkin’ now.

[06/11/13]
[Metal Blade Records]

Sleaze is an under-appreciated component of modern metal. In comparison to other adjectives such as ‘clean’, ‘tight’ and ‘angular’, the property of ‘sleaziness’ has kind of fallen into the realms of unpopular lately but by the sound of Thy Kingdom Scum, Church Of Misery really don’t care. Looking at their back catalogue, which consists of nearly fifteen years of serial-killer obsessed stoner doom, it’s obvious they’ve never been one to pay much attention to the metal-world around them, but the overall atmosphere of Kingdom is filthy in a way that you really don’t hear enough these.

Black Sabbath

13

01. End Of The Beginning
02. God Is Dead?
03. Loner
04. Zeitgeist
05. Age Of Reason
06. Live Forever
07. Damaged Soul
08. Dear Father

[06/11/13]
[Vertigo/Universal]

DISCLAIMER: This track by track review was written as a one time run through listen of the new album at the exclusive listening event in L.A.. This is not definitive nor refined. A more cohesive review of the album will be released when it is available.

Now that we have that out of the way, let us explore this sensational piece of heavy metal history. 13 is the first new Black Sabbath album since 1995’s Forbidden, the first with Ozzy Osbourne since 1978’s Never Say Die!, and the first with Geezer Butler since 1994’s Cross Purposes. In the current age where comebacks have been a growing trend, few others have me more excited than the return of Black Sabbath with Ozzy on vocals (though it’s sad that Bill Ward will not be on the album, who was replaced by Rage Against The Machine/ex-Audioslave drummer Brad Wilk). With so much controversy and disagreements conflicting their highly publicized reunion that was shown last year, things were put off to a point where it seemed like things might never work out. Thankfully, they did.